CHURCH STRUCTURE & FUNCTION(Church Structure)

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The Church of the East, also known as the Nestorian Church, is a Christian church, part of the Syriac tradition of Eastern Christianity. Like the churches from which it developed, the Church of the East has an ordained clergy divided into the three traditional orders of deacon, priest (or presbyter), and bishop. Also like other churches, it has an episcopal polity: organization by dioceses, each headed by a chorbishop and made up of several individual parish communities overseen by priests.

Today the Assyrian Church has about 170,000 members, mostly living in Iran, Iraq, and Syria. The Patriarchate of the Assyrian Church of the East is in exile in Chicago USA, and that of the Ancient Church of the East is in Baghdad.

The Church of Hope follows the rite of the Church of the East, called the Chaldean Catholic rite. Under our Archbishop of Brasil, Santa Iglesia del Oriente: Província Eclesiástica en las Américas, we are autonomous, and do not pay strict canonical obedience to the Assyrian patriarch. The Original name of Father Adao's church, was Chaldean Catholic Church of the East, in 1985. We are a diocese of this Church of special (healing) ministry.